The 2017 Oregon legislative session finished up this month with a few victories and a lot of disappointment in terms of protecting the health of Oregonians. Oregon PSR weighed in on a number of bills from climate and environmental health protection to stopping nuclear power, curbing gun violence, and ensuring all kids have access to health care. Thanks to so many of you who responded to our numerous requests to call your legislators, attended lobby days, and submitted testimony.

Oregon PSR, NAACP Portland and Neighbors for Clean Air along with twelve other organizations sent a letter today to Metro Council asking them to oppose sending waste to the Covanta incinerator in Brooks, Oregon.

July 19, 2017 (Salem, OR) – Today, the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) ruled that Portland’s Fossil Fuel Terminal Zoning Amendments, passed unanimously in December of 2016, is inconsistent with the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Portland’s fossil fuel policy intended to prevent new major fossil fuel infrastructure projects in the City. LUBA dismissed many of the other arguments brought by the oil industry and the Portland Business Alliance against the City’s policy. LUBA’s ruling is likely to be appealed to the State Court of Appeals.

In May, Oregon PSR caught wind of Senate Bill 990, which had passed in the State Senate, and immediately began working with a coalition of environmental groups and supporters throughout the state to defeat a bill that would have gutted Oregon's voter-passed nuclear power moratorium and allowed the construction of small modular nuclear reactors. Intense lobbying and hundreds of constituent contacts later, we won! SB 990 died in House Committee.

Former Oregon Governor Barbara Roberts co-authored an opinion piece to The Oregonian in response to the proposed legislation. Please read it to learn more about why we opposed this legislation, and contact us to learn more and to get more involved in preventing future nuclear power development in our region.

Oregon lawmakers withdrew a bill on Friday that would allow railroads to keep plans for oil train disasters a secret.

A year after a train derailed, caught fire and spilled oil into the Columbia River in Mosier, lawmakers were poised to approve a measure that would require railroads to draft worst-case scenario plans. But the bill also would prevent public scrutiny by exempting the plans from Oregon public records law and legal subpoenas.

By a 31-26 vote, the House of Representatives agreed to send the bill back to the Legislature's ways and means committee for more work.

In a lengthy hearing at the Fort Dalles Readiness Center that included Friends of the Columbia River Gorge showing a video of the fiery oil train derailment at Mosier on June 3, 2016, multiple attorneys on both sides of the siding issue argued back and forth in what an attorney for Union Pacific referred to as “a merry-go-round.”

On Thursday, June 1st, the Portland City Council and Multnomah County Commissioners both unanimously voted "yes" to commit Portland and Multnomah County to powering community-wide energy needs with renewable energy by the year 2050. The votes come as a huge local success, tragically coinciding with President Trump's announcement of pulling the United States out of the Paris Accord for action on climate change.

In stark contrast to Trump's disastrous budget proposal which increases spending for militarism and nuclear weapons at the expense of essential social and environmental protections, Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey today reintroduced the SANE Act which would slash nuclear weapons spending by $100 billion over the next decade.